Even if there is broad consensus that geoengineering is too risky, research into environmental modification will happen simply out of self-preservation—nobody wants to fall behind. Moreover, it’s not hard to imagine some international actors seeing geoengineering as something other than solely a way of avoiding environmental disaster. It wouldn’t be the first time states looked at the environment as a weapon. -- But although the idea of a geoengineering arms race may superficially parallel this line of thinking, it’s actually a very different concept. Unlike “weather warfare,” geoengineering would be subtle and long term, more a strategic project than a tactical weapon; moreover, unlike weather control, we know it can work, since we’ve been unintentionally changing the climate for decades.

There was an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education last month about university professors taking stimulants like Adderall to increase their academic productivity. Oddly, the article quoted several professors who considered this "cheating" at academics. I have to confess, I don’t understand this way of thinking. Academics is the search for truth and knowledge. If a drug can make that search more productive with few side effects, why in the world wouldn’t you want to take it?

Turn the question around: are people who choose to use Viagra, cosmetic surgery, hair-coloring, propranolol to overcome stage fright, fakes? A strong case can be made that people who take advantage modern technologies are seeking to become more authentically who they believe themselves to be. Demands for authenticity turn out to be just a way for other people to impose their views of your proper social status on you.

19.1.08

From an outsider's perspective, obesity seems like a simple problem to solve: Eat less, exercise more. But, the body regulates food intake and feelings of satiety as part of a tightly regulated homeostatic process. Once a person becomes obese, it's these same regulatory feedback loops that also defend the obese state as the new "normal.

“We learned from these experiments that an individual will intentionally seek out an aggressive encounter solely because they experience a rewarding sensation from it,” Kennedy said. “This shows for the first time that aggression, on its own, is motivating, and that the well-known positive reinforcer dopamine plays a critical role.”

“A brain’s not so sensitive to whether it’s a person or not. If it’s something that has a lot of traits associated with what it means to be a human, then all the better for us, it seems.” The study also provides insight into the flip side of anthropomorphism: dehumanization. People who enjoy a strong sense of social connection are less likely to perceive humanlike mental states in people who seem different from them. Classic examples occur during times of war, during which a strong sense of nationalism or group identity tend to emerge. “It may be that strong in-group identity is one of the things that facilitates dehumanizing the opposing side,” Epley said.

15.1.08

Longo’s group put baker’s yeast on a calorie-restricted diet and knocked out two genes, RAS2 and SCH9, that promote aging in yeast and cancer in humans. “We got a 10-fold life span extension that is, I think, the longest one that has ever been achieved in any organism,” Longo said. In 2005, the same research group reported a five-fold life span extension in the journal Cell. Normal yeast organisms live about a week.

14.1.08

The first important finding of the IAAF study is that during running at a given speed, Pistorius uses 25% less energy than the runners he was compared to. It suggests that the Cheetahs are far more efficient than the human limb. -- Secondly, the research found that the carbon-fibre Cheetahs returned energy during running at levels never seen before in the human ankle. -- The third key finding is that Pistorius, running with the Cheetahs, displayed a much lower vertical oscillation than the able-bodied runners during sprinting. -- The fourth key finding is that the amount of energy lost during the stance phase of running was only 9.3% with the Cheetahs, but was 41.4% in the human ankle/leg.

“The first programs we developed for the iPlant were exercise programs, originally for treating obesity. Take running: the soles of these trainers here contain sensors that punch out a bolt of dopamine with each step. Nothing like orgasm, but enough to make you want it like those few lucky people who really enjoy running want it, with a strict time limit of course. Implant-driven exercise programs have been available for rats for decades (Burgess et al, 1991; Gardner et al, 1991), now we’ve got them too. Learning programs work on a similar principle, dopamine for correct answers. The current version of the iPlant has about six thousand hours of training in French, German, Mandarin, Japanese and maths, but you can expect a lot more with each update. There are a few purely clinical programs as well, like DeTox and DePhobe. Dopamine-driven software lets you want what you want to want.”

Innovative Minds Don’t Think AlikeIn their book, the Heath brothers outline six “hooks” that they say are guaranteed to communicate a new idea clearly by transforming it into what they call a Simple Unexpected Concrete Credentialed Emotional Story. Each of the letters in the resulting acronym, Succes, refers to a different hook. (“S,” for example, suggests simplifying the message.) Although the hooks of “Made to Stick” focus on the art of communication, there are ways to fashion them around fostering innovation.